Coppells Lost Coat I wouldn't just pin it on N O. We had 5 loan players who all excelled. Nelson was great and a focal point for our attacks but Miazga outshone him in my eyes.I for one would rather bolster our CM or CB than use all what little we have on a CF. Goals win you games but clean sheets guarantee you points.

yeah this 100%. Miazga and Martinez were the keys for me. We still didn't score too many with NO played, though granted his 3 goals (1 pen) were important for us. I'd argue Meite and Barrow working as a combo was more important than NO.

I think N-O is a bad apple. We have Baldock, Meite, Nokavich, Loader, and there are other forwards out there.

Yeah! We don't need Portugese internationals! The players we have already are better! He's a bad apple.. the amount of problems he caused last season was awful!

Utter nonsense. The guy is endlessly better than what we already have up front, and likely much better than what we can afford to bring in. Remember when we didn't have him? We weren't very good.

Only Reading fans would rather inexperience, youth and players that management deemed "not good enough" last season.

Of course you'd take Olivera back. Don't be a silly billy liar pants.

Other points:Have you ever seen Novakovich play? How many did Loader score last season? Is there any promise he'll actually be better and more suited to the champ?

Interesting opinion. Just to add some context

Oliveira has scored 22 league goals in his last three championship seasons. Baldock has scored 19 league goals in his last three championship seasons. Is he “endlessly” better?

I remember when we didn’t have him, we weren’t very good. Were we actually that good with him? Or did our form peak April time (this being the time he was injured)

I like Nélson, he’s a good striker. But 22 goals in three seasons is hardly inspiring and whilst we didn’t see any attitude problems, he does have history of them with other clubs. Add to that he is extremely greedy. That’s a good trait in some ways for strikers but with him, it’s over the top

Pepe the Horseman Before he got injured everyone was absolutely raving about Oliveira and now people have convinced themselves we don't need him. It's nuts. He's literally the player we've been crying out for for years. He's shown no sign of a poor attitude, quite the opposite in fact.

I think that's a fair point, Pepe. For whatever reason, opinion on Nelson does seem to have changed a fair bit in the off-season. About the only concerns I recall back then were whether we had (hopefully) included the option to buy him at the end of the loan. But as they say, a few months is a long time in footy.

Jagermesiter1871 Has everyone here completely forgotten how utterly atrociously oxf*rd we were going forward last year pre-oliveira?

Much to do with the wide players and creativity in midfield. Aluko was such a catastrophic buy for the fee paid. Instead we could have bought 3 average players and had far more depth and balance in the squad.

sandman Of course Oliveira is better than Baldock. Baldock might run around a bit but ultimately he's a League 1 striker who may score you 10 goals in the Championship, if you're lucky.

That's a very good season for a player like him and he'd have to play out of his skin to achieve it.

Oliveira does not not even average that over the last five seasons in the championship2015 → Swansea City (loan) 10 games 1 goal2015–2016 → Nottingham Forest (loan) 28 games 9 goals2016– Norwich City 65 games 19 goals2019 → Reading (loan) 10 games 3 goals

We saw enough of Oliveira last season to see what he brought us and what we’ve missed.

That being said we also saw enough to suggest not having him, especially on his wages, is not the end of the world. Missed some absolute sitters, his performance at Bristol was one of the worst from a striker I’ve ever seen and his goal scoring record is hardly prolific. I still would have liked to get him but it’s hardly calamitous if we don’t.

CountryRoyal We saw enough of Oliveira last season to see what he brought us and what we’ve missed.

That being said we also saw enough to suggest not having him, especially on his wages, is not the end of the world. Missed some absolute sitters, his performance at Bristol was one of the worst from a striker I’ve ever seen and his goal scoring record is hardly prolific. I still would have liked to get him but it’s hardly calamitous if we don’t.

Tbf after the Ipswich game he could harldy move. He had some bad misses but he wasn't 100%.

Jagermesiter1871 Has everyone here completely forgotten how utterly atrociously oxf*rd we were going forward last year pre-oliveira?

Much to do with the wide players and creativity in midfield. Aluko was such a catastrophic buy for the fee paid. Instead we could have bought 3 average players and had far more depth and balance in the squad.

Or we could have got another Meyler, another Baldock, another McNulty and be even more oxf*rd with ffp while getting absolutely no on field benefit.

Royalwaster Admittedly when we still had Lita, Long was still very average

Yup. Remember when we had the luxury of persevering with players til they came good.

Long's transformation with us is why I'm a big believer in confidence and hunger over raw ability. His touch was atrocious when he first broke through, then as the team got better, so did he.

If we're still short at the end of the windows, I'd take Long on a season long loan (assuming he's fit)), and make him our central striker alongside Yakou and Mo

Maybe my advancing years are dulling my memory but didn’t Long break through during the 106 campaign. And then the team got better ?

I wasn't thinking season by season per se.

My recollection is of a young, raw striker, with a poor first touch - whom many questionnned whether he had what was needed to succeed - blossoming as the team evolved (take your point about 'got better')

For a while he got into that zone where everything you try comes off. Makes the most of what he has IMHO.